Four new clinics in East Anglia will be offering single vaccines to replace the controversial mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) innoculation.

Children are given the triple MMR vaccine from the age of 13 months but some parents fear a possible link with autism.

Families can pay for single vaccines, but only at specialist centres.

18 months plus

Later this year a private firm, Healthchoice UK, is opening clinics offering separate immunisation with three vaccines at Cambridge and Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, Ipswich in Suffolk and Chelmsford in Essex.

The MMR three-in-one vaccine is offered free of charge on the National Health Service.

Each single vaccine costs �80 and is only available to children over 18 months old.